I can’t believe I agree with Dave Grohl,… in an interview to Billboard magazine, the Foo Fighters frontman declared ‘We think we suck’
I must admit it is a little bit taken out of context, there is more to the story of course. This is what he really said:
‘You have to understand, we're a really simple band. We think we suck and we try really hard to make good records and we practice. We don't feel like the biggest, best band in the world. We just feel like the same five dorks that were touring in a van 17 years ago, that hasn't changed.’
Okay, this actually has a complete different meaning, it is a sort of let’s-play-the-modest-guys, we know we are big but in fact let’s-play-it-cool-like-we-are-still-not-aware-of-it!
The rest of the interview sounds the same, going from pompous and pretentious to faux-cool, do people still buy it?
For example, he says:
‘But there was a time about 10 years ago when we would get asked to come play an awards show or a radio festival or something like that and we'd show up and be the only rock band […] And I started wondering, ‘Why are we even here?’ I wondered if they just needed a ‘rock band’ – ‘Who's a rockband? Call the Foo Fighters.’ Then I started thinking maybe we actually represent something to people, maybe when they hear the name ‘Foo Fighters’ they just think rock'n'roll, and I thought, ‘Wow, that's cool.’
Can you believe that? The guy manages to pretend humbleness in order to embellish his pretentious band’s rock status and bring out some self-congratulatory discourse.
And there is also the 'I-am-just-like-you' thing: ‘I went to see Soungarden four or five months ago; I didn't stand in the VIP section, I ran down and got crushed in front of the stage and danced around sweaty with a bunch of people I didn't know for an hour and 45 minutes.’
And Dave still believes in rock‘n’ roll, which is, according to him, huge elsewhere except in America:
‘In America, rock'n'roll isn't in the forefront of the mainstream as it is the rest of the world. England is another country where rock bands are hugely successful: You hear them on the radio, they have hits and play stadiums, and it's almost like it's bigger than it's ever been. But for whatever reason, here in America there's not as much focus on rock'n'roll bands. I don't know what it is, but it's one of the few countries in the world where rock'n'roll is not huge.’
Really? I just checked the UK charts for this week, and who are the number ones? Flo Rida, Coldplay, Taio Cruz, Avicii, Rizzle Kicks, Olly Murs, Labrinth, Jessie J, Rihanna, Llyoyd, LMFAO,… the charts are obviously dominated by rap, hip-hop, DLs, electro-pop, and I doubt you can call Coldplay rock’n’roll.
Grohl is out of touch with reality, U2 and Springsteen may still sell out arenas, but rock is not huge anymore.
He declared that 2011 was the best year of his life and thinks he can fix the music industry:
‘I feel like as a musician and a part of this rock'n'roll scene, I have a responsibility to make shit real, to not think about all of that other bullshit, not think about making music for money or promoting music for fashion, the contests. My responsibility is to make shit that's real. Once you start doing the right thing, it will get better.’
He is taking himself so seriously…. He has the responsibility to make good music? Last time I’ve checked, the Foo Fighters’ music sucks.